Question: This man graduated from Whitman in 2008, served as Black & White copy editor and won over $50,000 on “Jeopardy.” Answer: Who is Adam Marshall?

In three “Jeopardy” episodes that aired from June 27 to 29, Marshall dominated the competition on his way to win $53,800.

Marshall only took the initial online test because it was convenient for him, but it turned out to be a winning opportunity.

“The online test is really easy to take; they administer it every six months, so I just signed up. It took about half an hour, so it was really not a hassle at all,” Marshall said. “Once I did well enough and got to go to an audition, I thought that would be a really great opportunity to put my random trivia knowledge to use.”

Once he got a callback, Marshall completed a second round of auditions, where he took another test and competed in a practice round. After he passed that stage, “Jeopardy” called him to Los Angeles to tape his episode.

Marshall had a month to prepare for his appearance. He spent this time watching “Jeopardy” episodes, studying how to wager and brushing up on his weaker subjects.

“I made flash cards for country music and mixed drinks, because I figured I was at an inherent disadvantage there,” Marshall said.

But overall, Marshall felt comfortable with competing, mostly because of his time on Whitman’s It’s Academic team in high school.

“I felt really confident in the knowledge portion of Jeopardy, in part due to my experience on It’s Academic,” Marshall said. “I felt more comfortable being on a televised trivia show than I think I otherwise would have.”

Marshall served as the captain of the quizbowl team his junior year and senior year, when he led It’s Academic to the 2008 Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence National Scholastic Championship.

“Adam was a star in the era when Whitman was winning national championships,” former It’s Academic coach Jan Danis said. “When Adam showed up at It’s Academic practices the first few weeks as a freshman, the upperclassmen nicknamed him ‘Freak Boy.’  It was teasing, but it was a compliment, too, to his unusual knowledge base.”

While It’s Academic is similar in many respects to “Jeopardy,” one major difference is the cash prizes. Marshall hasn’t received his money yet because “Jeopardy” has a 120-day period after episodes are taped before they pay contestants. Once he gets it, though, he is going to put it in an account.

“I don’t really have any way of spending it without doing anything really, really, stupidly extravagant,” Marshall said.

Besides winning the money, Marshall accomplished another one of his major goals during his trip to L.A. for the episode.

“That was the first I’d ever been to California, so I didn’t really have any time to explore Los Angeles, but I did go to the In-N-Out Burger by LAX,” Marshall said. “That was definitely on my to-do list, so I’m very happy with that.”